Carbide pistol dies & lube

[jcwit]

Unless you have threads for arms , re-sizing straight-wall pistol cases are effortless w/ or w/o lube in Carbide or Titanium Nitride dies.

No lube means faster, easier reloading.

No, in my case I do not have threads for arms, but my hands are twisted up with arthritis, which I also have in my wrists and shoulders, so please do not try to explain to me how easy it is to size and not needing to make it even slightly easier.

Wait a few years and things may look different, lets just hope not. I see you're retired, obviously I'm not as lucky as you are. Taking almost daily doses of narcotic pain killers is my only escape from the pain and even then does not work some days.

As far as the speed issue 500 pcs of 9mm, 45 acp, or whatever in a bowl getting a spray shot from an aerosol can doesn't eat into my daily minutes to an extent for me to be concerned with.

 

[CraigC]

Unless you have threads for arms , re-sizing straight-wall pistol cases are effortless w/ or w/o lube in Carbide or Titanium Nitride dies.

No lube means faster, easier reloading.

Exactly!

...but my hands are twisted up with arthritis

Obviously, there are always exceptions.

 

[atblis]

Unless you have threads for arms , re-sizing straight-wall pistol cases are effortless w/ or w/o lube in Carbide or Titanium Nitride dies.

No lube means faster, easier reloading.

Maybe the difference is minimal in a single stage press. When using a progressive machine the difference is dramatic.

A) It does make resizing easier and smoother. Much much smoother in my experience.
B) It makes the press run smoother, thus faster. (Dillon 650 in my case)
C) This adds up over the course of thousands of rounds in a single sitting both in terms of fatigue and speed.

 

[243winxb]

Not all "carbide" is the same.

 

[Shoot66]

I use carbide dies, however l believe that lubing every 10th case (pistol/revolver) makes the sizing smoother. I do it and it makes me happy, so...

 

[OregonJohnny]

I started out my reloading career with nothing but .44 Magnum steel dies. After a while of messing with the lube, wiping off the lube, getting powder stuck to any excess lube around the case mouth, the extra time and effort, etc., I tried some carbide pistol dies. I fell in love with the no-mess concept of the carbide. I retired my .44 steel dies, and now reload for 6 different handgun calibers with 4 different RCBS carbide die sets.

Never a drop of lube on any of them, and it's worked out just fine for me. Of course, I hardly ever load more than 50 cartridges in one sitting, so any extra effort in sizing that the carbide dies might give up to lubed cases in steel dies, is irrelevant for me. I just couldn't stand the mess involved with loading up a dozen or so .44 Magnum cartridges using steel.

 

[jcwit]

Some here sure miss reading the posts.

Please explain to me the mess involved with a spritz of spray teflon lube, its a dry lube and there is no mess.

 

[OregonJohnny]

Please explain to me the mess involved with a spritz of spray teflon lube, its a dry lube and there is no mess.

Well, in my case, the only lube I had on hand to learn with was the sticky goo that came with my RCBS Rock Chucker Supreme Master Reloading Kit. You dab it out on a foam pad, and roll your cases on it.

I'm sure there are much less messy methods/products out there for lubing cases, but for me, the carbide dies work great with no lube whatsoever, and they only cost about $5 more than a steel set, so why not?

 

[jcwit]

so why not?

At my age ANYTHING to make life easier is welcome!

Also the reason I finally gave up the 4 on the floor for the automatic. I seriously never thought that would happen.

 

[gamestalker]

This topic is still going? I'll toss in one more comment. If carbide dies aren't working properly and your still having to use lube, save your money and buy the much less expensive old fashioned steel dies. Other wise try giving them a quick tumble to knock off any grit causing the resistence.

 

[kainronin]

I actually got a stuck case in a carbide die for 9mm.

 

[dickttx]

I did too. But it ended up that it was a .380 case that pulled through the shellholder!

 

[jmorris]

Most of the reloaders I know that don't lube pistol cases in carbide dies have never tried it, or don't use spray lube.

 

[kingmt]

I tried it but couldn't figure out why I was making more work for myself. I quit doing that & have been happy since.